Written for a request from a list of fluff/smut GIF starters.
Sasuke looked up as he felt the dull heat of a familiar chakra signature, and was a little startled to see Naruto wasn't even bothering to hide himself. It shook his focus, and he dropped through the surface of the water he had been standing on into the lake, spluttering.
He'd chosen the lake because unlike the training grounds - at least those within the village proper where he was cleared to go - he could be alone here. He was a little sick of the new flavour of sidelong looks and not-very-subtle shadows he had been drawing since his return. Sasuke frowned, glaring in Naruto's direction, and fished the kunai he'd dropped from the bottom of the lake, returning it to its sheath in his pouch.
When he looked up again Naruto was approaching him - slogging through the water rather than walking on its surface, so they were on equal footing, at least, but why?
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked snappishly, vaguely hearing Kakashi's chiding tones in the back of his mind. Neither of them, he suspected, had been precisely thrilled when Kakashi was assigned to watch him and 'help him integrate back into Konoha'. Although looking back on it with a bit more perspective, Sasuke had some fondness for the time he'd spent under his first proper sensei. "Not satisfied Kakashi-sensei is keeping me under control?"
That fondness didn't make him any more pleased to be under ordered supervision.
Naruto blinked, then pouted, looking hurt. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he took a step back. "I missed you, teme!"
Sasuke froze.
"You just took off and I missed you, and now you're back and I want to spend time with you!" Naruto waved his hands vaguely, splashing a bit. Sasuke had . . . not remotely considered that possibility to explain why Naruto had been tailing him around the village, or mysteriously showing up where he chose to train, or eat. Or meandering past the Uchiha district in the evenings.
"Why?" Sasuke asked dumbly.
"Because I like you, stupid!" Naruto said, smacking one hand over his own face. "Is that so hard?"
Sasuke opened his mouth, then closed it, frowning.
Naruto sighed as he dropped his hand, slogging closer to Sasuke. "It is possible, you know." he said, reaching out. "For people to just like you. Even if you're a jerk."
"Shut up." Sasuke said automatically, raising a hand ready to deflect Naruto's attempt to reach him.
"No." Naruto shook his head. "Like it or not you are my friend, and that means you're stuck with me, got it?" he said fiercely. "Whether or not you acknowledge it some of us actually care about you, and I'm not gonna let you push me away!" He took another step, reaching for Sasuke's shoulder.
"Leave me alone!" Sasuke raged, swatting Naruto's hands away and striking out at him instinctively.
Naruto let the initial punch take him in the ribs - not quite hard enough to crack them, though they would probably be bruised - easily deflected the second and third as he turned more towards Sasuke, then-
Sasuke stiffened as Naruto wrapped an arm around him, but couldn't quite hold back from leaning into it. Naruto's other arm came around his shoulders and he shoved half-heartedly. Naruto didn't budge, nor try to use his grip to restrain Sasuke or subdue him. Sasuke slowly let his own arms come up around Naruto in return.
He hugged Sasuke tight. "No." he said quietly, nuzzling closer.
"I don't need you." Sasuke said thickly, tense despite Naruto's arms snug around him. Despite his own around Naruto. "I don't need-"
"You need somebody. Everybody does." Naruto said, sounding far wiser than Sasuke remembered the loudmouth being before he left to train with one of the Sannin. Then again, Naruto had evidently trained with one of the other Sannin while Sasuke was gone, perhaps he had actually . . . learned something. "I don't mean you have to need me, but you're gonna have to put up with me, 'cause you're my friend and I care about you."
"A fate worse than death." Sasuke said, but there wasn't much heat in it and he couldn't quite make himself let go of Naruto. It didn't really matter, as Naruto certainly wasn't letting go of him.
"You'll deal with it." Naruto said with a little huff, grip tightening.
Sasuke sighed quietly. The water lapped peacefully around their legs. "Have you really been following me just because you. . ."
"Yeah." Naruto leaned back enough to look him in the eye without releasing him. There was zero guile there; Naruto was really kind of a useless ninja no matter how strong a fighter he'd become. "Why, what'd you think I was doing?" he asked, looking clueless.
Sasuke snorted, shaking his head.
"Sasuke!" Naruto said stridently, way too loud for being so close to Sasuke's ears as he was.
"I should have known." Sasuke said dryly. Kakashi might casually tail him out of caution, but he should have realised it wasn't really Naruto's style. And Kakashi hadn't done that for weeks, not since the first few days after he had been granted freedom to roam Konoha.
"Sasuke. . ." Naruto whined again, and Sasuke punched him lightly in the side.
"So you wanted to train with me?" Sasuke asked, and Naruto paused for a moment, then grinned. "Wanna spar?"
Naruto's grin broadened, but rather than step away he squeezed Sasuke even tighter, nuzzling his cheek affectionately against Sasuke's. He sighed but submitted to the effusive display for another few moments.
"Let's do it!" Naruto agreed happily, moving back and bounding up from the lakebed to stand on the surface.
Sasuke followed suit, smiling slightly even as he shook off lake water, and set himself for a fight - in play or no, neither of them would go easy on the other - eyes fixed on Naruto.
I didn't realise until I was tagging this one that it could . . . possibly slide in as a friendship fic, but I definitely had the ship in mind when writing it.